* SCANDAL *

An owl alighted in the yew

Beside a poet’ s little house;

The hour was nearly half-past two,

And, as he ate his juicy mouse,

A cuckoo clock made cheerful chime

Within and shouted out the time.

“O gracious God!” the owl began,

And rolled his round eyes at the moon,

“What a black piece of work is man —

Well might we miss cuckoo in June.

How mad, misguided, inhumane

To keep cuckoo upon a chain!

“But all the feathered folk must know;

This infamy I’ ll bring to light,

And hoot the horror high and low

And scream the crime by day and night.

No bird shall sing to him again

Who keeps a cuckoo on a chain.”